WWE Hall of Fame – ‘Every Wrestler Should be Inducted’

With WrestleMania season just around the corner (at the time of this writing) and rumors flying around as always about who will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this coming April, it’s hard not to think about all of the names who get left off each year. One wrestling legend felt this process needs to be changed.

For a while now, the WWE Hall of Fame has had five living and one posthumous inductions a year. There is, of course, the celebrity induction (how can we ever forget about Mr. T’s long-winded speech about his mother?), one Warrior Award, and since 2015, legacy and group inductions. But is this enough? In an interview with In Your Head Radio two years before his passing, “Playboy” Buddy Rose gave his take.

“Basically, every wrestler who made a living from wrestling and was able to put food on the table and pay the rent or buy a house should be in the hall of fame. That’s my personal opinion.”

Rose continued, “Everybody that I wrestled helped make me and I helped make them. It’s basically a fraternity of people that got together and tried to make it so we could work seven nights a week and make money every single night without hurting each other. No wrestler could be in the WWE Hall of Fame if he was in the ring by himself with a camera on him. You couldn’t do it – because you needed somebody to win and somebody to lose. So what about all those guys that lost every night? How come they’re not in the Hall of Fame? Because you needed those guys. If you didn’t have ’em, you can’t build the pyramid. You gotta have somebody at the bottom of the pyramid to hold the top of the pyramid up… and if Hulk Hogan is at the top, what about all the guys who did jobs for him all the way up?”

“Playboy” Buddy Rose on the WWE Hall of Fame: “Every wrestler who made a living from wrestling should be in the hall of fame.”

“Playboy” Buddy Rose

In a profession with chiseled bodies, Buddy Rose stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb. He was a portly man, and later in his career was morbidly obese. Regardless of his size, he was an excellent worker whose ring psychology was matched by few. Rose was primarily used as an enhancement talent during his final run with the then-WWF in 1990, losing all of his televised matches to elevate other stars, but the “Playboy” once received a title shot against Bob Backlund at Madison Square Garden, was the co-holder of the AWA Tag Titles when it still mattered and was a huge draw in the Pacific Northwest. He had a lot more credentials than those who only remember him by his “Blow Away Diet”.

Buddy Rose passed away from natural causes on April 28, 2009. He has yet to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Do you feel the WWE Hall of Fame induction process needs to change? What would you suggest? Sound off on social media!